


And it still feels like running

by Sister_Grimm



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-30
Updated: 2015-08-23
Packaged: 2018-04-12 02:07:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4461197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sister_Grimm/pseuds/Sister_Grimm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Oliver's vacation felt more like getting on the yacht all over again</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The first time Oliver sees Laurel out of costume after he gets back to Starling City, she's at Tommy's grave and he thinks that's appropriate and she stands to leave when she sees him.

Even Laurel knows he's been avoiding her.

"Don't leave." The words slip out before he can stop them and he grabs her arm to hammer in the point. Laurel turns back to him and the headstone and leans against him, resting her head on his shoulder. She catches herself in the familiar gesture, jumps and apologizes. "Don't." Oliver says quietly and they stand in silence. 

And despite the vacation it's the first time Oliver has truly felt at peace in a year. He turns, looks at Laurel. She looks exhausted and the next thing he says is another surprise. "I'm sorry."

"What for?" She asks. 

"Everything. Sara. Tommy. Everything."

She nods. And sometimes Oliver forgets how similar they are, one soul two bodies and zero calm. Sometimes he forgets Laurel is human, she'd seemed so flawless before the accident, before Sara, before Tommy. Maybe he'd have been less stupid if he hadn't been blinded by his own confidence. His mistakes will never be Laurel's fault. But what she says next drives their similarities home in a way he tries to avoid. "I kept asking myself what I did wrong. When you and Sara... When Mom and Dad... When Tommy...." Because Laurel will always blame herself for not being perfect, just like Oliver will forever be haunted by his failures. "How was the vacation?"

Oliver pauses awkwardly and says, "it wasn't what I expected."

And Laurel raises an eyebrow but says nothing.

"I thought it would be a break but it felt like running." He doesn't say it felt like getting on that damn boat again. Does say, " I'm not sure Felicity and I are right for each other." And still Laurel doesn't speak, doesn't say I stopped drinking but you keep running. And Oliver watches her as she looks at Tommy's grave and finally speaks.

"You know, they both loved us when we didn't necessarily deserve it." And for all the cruel things he has said to her, he can't think of a time when she didn't deserve love, didn't deserve someone so much better than him and knows he never did anything to deserve her.

So what he says instead is, "do you want to get coffee?" And it is "I love you" and "can we try again" and a million different ways of saying "I'm sorry".

And Laurel's "sure" is "I love you too" and "maybe" and "I'm sorry too" and "I forgive you".

And ordering Laurel a coffee (black, one sugar and he can't believe he still knows that) at the diner near the university is memories of after party breakfasts and "please you've been studying all day" but it is also " how have you been?" And reaching for her hand unconsciously is "God, I missed you." And what he says is "I missed this" and the look she gives him tells him he doesn't need to explain.

"I missed you too"


	2. It took 7 years

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It takes Oliver and Laurel nearly 8 years to be good for each other

  It's after the third or fourth not a date when Oliver realizes where they'd gone so wrong when he'd come back. They had spent so long holding on to _before_ that they didn't adapt to _now_. They didn't adapt to anger and guilt and they hurt each other and the only other person who mattered in the natural disaster that was _OllieandLaurel_.

   With that in mind they had done what they had always done best. They ran. Ollie - _Oliver_ \- to Lian Yu. _Ollie is a stupid 23 year old, Oliver makes the hard choices_. His team doesn't understand but they drag him home anyway. He pieces himself together because he has them and his goals.

   Laurel to the bottle - _didn't want to turn out like her father but_ \- without Tommy her fragile coping skills, rendered rail thin by Ollie's - _Oliver's_ \- return, shatter entirely. It takes Sara coming back, it takes being able to finally look Sara in the eye and say I will always love you but I was so angry and have that mean something because Sara is here and not a nightmare drowned out with Tommy's vodka.

   They couldn't adapt to who they had become because they'd spent so long trying be who they were. And with that in mind, Oliver says, " Dinah Laurel Lance will you go on a date with me?"

   They're in the new Foundry in Thea's penthouse and Laurel is sparring with Thea and to Nyssa's credit, Laurel doesn't stop, doesn't miss a beat, when she says, "What?" And pins a now distracted Thea. In retrospect he's glad it was just the three of them and Laurel stands and unwraps her hands and says, "a date?"

   Oliver is standing there in dressed low key nice (the jeans are Acne, the shirt is some brand Thea raved about) and he is holding a bouquet of calla lilies because they are Laurel's favourite and each bit of Laurel trivia he remembers amazes and astonishes him. But the sun is rising and Laurel says, "I'm not sure about now..."

   And Thea interrupts. "I'll order you guys a big brunch spread and go check on Diggle and Lyla" and Oliver laughs because Laurel was always Thea's favourite.

  30 minutes later they have more food than they could possibly need and Oliver remembers how sick he was when he came home and ate too much. And he sneaks a glance at Laurel devouring a breakfast burrito and she has dark circles under her eyes and her hair is still damp from the pre spar post patrol shower she had. This Laurel is beautiful.

   She was never not beautiful but she was controlled where Ollie was a mess. She was precise where Ollie was wild. She was everything he needed to hear when the last thing he wanted to do was listen. It's her voice in his head that got him through Lian Yu. Laurel had seen potential that no one else acknowledged (Oliver would only learn that his father agreed when it was too late). Laurel had been perfect before he left and only on Lian Yu did he realize how he should have worshipped her and he resented her for being messy when he came back. So instead he asks her about work. Listens to the drama at DA's office. Doesn't miss the note of pride in her voice when she talks about the vigilante debates. Doesn't bring up the past.

   Laurel looks at Oliver, she'd never been as proud as the day she learned he was the Arrow, she's proud of how he's grown and maybe that wasn't her place but she wipes some egg of his upper lip laughing and they stop, realize how close they are and the kiss is nothing like the passion of their last try, this kiss is tender, chaste and sweet. It is a promise of new beginnings as the sun shines over them.

"I really have to go get ready for work" Laurel leans her forehead against Oliver's and he nods and kisses her again and if that isn't familiar, Laurel doesn't know what is.

 

Laurel thinks she could fall in love with this Oliver all over again.

Oliver thinks he never stopped loving Laurel.


End file.
